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We Stand in Solidarity With Nikole Hannah-Jones
We, the undersigned, believe this country stands at a crucial moment that will define the democratic expression and exchange of ideas for our own and future generations. State institutions across the country are attempting to ban frank and rigorous conversation about our history in the classroom. Few single works have been threatened with more restrictions…
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Let's Celebrate Howard University
Is it Howard University’s job to pave the way for its own obsolescence? That’s one of the questions The Atlantic‘s Ta-Nehisi Coates explores as he takes a colorful trip down memory lane at his alma mater and laments the challenges that HBCUs now face. His son is 13 years old and just starting to think…
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Assess the Crowd, Not Just the Lone Radical
Ta-Nehisi Coates, in a piece at The Atlantic about a recent protest by conservatives in Washington, D.C., explains how he is less interested in the actions of a single radical person and more concerned with how the surrounding crowd, or audience, accepts or rejects the individual’s claims. It is the wisdom of the crowd…
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Brad Paisley, the Confederate Flag and the Politics of Offense
In a piece at the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates argues that what Brad Paisley, of “Accidental Racist” fame, fails to understand about blacks and the Confederate flag is that it is far worse than “offensive.” He tackles the politics of offense and offense-taking. New York’s Jody Rosen has an interview up with Brad Paisley that’s worth checking out. When…
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Women, It's OK to Rethink Whether to Get Married
In a piece for The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates examines the decline in the marriage rate among black families and is not bothered it. He says that women today are determining if marriage advances “their interests as much as it once did,” and people should consider what women in the past had to endure in order…
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Why Obama Should Rethink Syria Strike
The Atlantic‘s Ta-Nehisi Coates says it’s time for the Obama administration to re-evaluate its Syria strategy after a recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that an overwhelming number of Americans oppose a military strike. By a 48% to 29% margin, more Americans oppose than support conducting military air strikes against Syria in response…
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The Veil Between Obama and Black America
In a hard-hitting piece at The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates looks at President Obama’s relationship with the black community in terms of his remarks on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. He compares Obama’s speech to “The Conservation of Races” by W.E.B. Du Bois, a speech that Du Bois is said to have come…
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The Stupidity of Racism
Ta-Nehisi Coates, writing at The Atlantic, tackles a post at the conservative magazine National Review that ridicules what’s known in the black community as “the talk,” regarding police profiling of African-American men. “One of the effects of racism is its tendency to justify stupidity,” Coates argues. National Review’s Victor Davis Hanson takes on the president’s…
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Trayvon Martin vs. Justice in the US
Contending that the jury was right not to convict George Zimmerman of second-degree murder based on the law and that Trayvon Martin’s death was a profound injustice, The Atlantic‘s Ta-Nehisi Coates writes that two “conflicting truths emerge” in trying to evaluate Trayvon Martin’s shooting death. In trying to assess the killing of Trayvon Martin by…
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Zimmerman Jury Got It Right
Arguing that the state failed to prove a charge of second-degree murder against George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin or that he acted recklessly beyond a reasonable doubt, the Atlantic‘s Ta-Nehisi Coates says the jury got it right in his acquittal. But, he said, “the message of this episode is unfortunate.” 1.)…
